Bill Would Require Large Companies to Disclose Supply Chain Efforts

A new bill, introduced in the House of Representatives by a New York congresswoman, would require companies with more than $100 million in earnings to publicly disclose their efforts to keep child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking out of their supply chains.

“It’s virtually impossible to get dressed, drive to work, talk on the phone, or eat a meal without touching products tainted by forced labor,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D) of Queens, when she introduced the bill.

The bill would require any company earning more than $100 million worldwide to document its efforts in two places: its annual Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) filing, and the company’s website. These disclosures would detail the companies’ policies to prevent illegal labor and their methods for certifying that suppliers abide by them. …

“The Congresswoman was very intelligent about the way she’s put this together,” says E. Benjamin Skinner [author of the book, “A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery]. “[The disclosure] has to be in an SEC filing. If you lie as a CEO in an SEC filing, you go to jail.”